Floor exercise in gymnastics from “A” to “Z”

Gymnastics comprises many disciplines, each of them has its peculiarities. Some types of programs are usually performed by women or men, while others can be present in programs of various athletes. The floor exercise is one of the disciplines that fascinates both women and men equally.

Discipline

Floor exercise is included in gymnastics competitions for sportsmen of both genders. This discipline requires demonstrating various skills on the floor. Men have 70 seconds to perform, while women have 90 seconds. All elements done by athletes have their own value. Not only the difficulty of the element is important, but also the accuracy of the technique and presence or absence of mistakes can affect the overall score.

The spring floor is a special surface designed for the floor exercise. This is a square with a 12 meters’ side. There is a ‘safety’ border, which is 1 meter wide. The surface is covered with a special material that prevents athletes from the corruption of their skin.

Elements (in men’s gymnastics)

Men must include in their program four categories of elements. The first one is basically gymnastics elements that can either require standing in a static position (a handstand, for instance) or are aimed at demonstrating one’s flexibility (various splits or balance exercises). The second group of elements comprises acrobatic moves combined with forward flips. The somersault might be simple or be followed by a roll or any other element. The next category is concerned with acrobatics as well, but in this case, the somersault must be a backwards one. Finally, the last group consists of all the elements that can be described as ‘complicated acrobatic moves’. Various twists, sideward somersaults are great illustrations of this category.

Elements (in women’s gymnastics)

Women’s floor exercise is the only discipline in artistic gymnastics that involves music. A program lasts for 90 seconds, within which athletes must demonstrate their skills, perform stunts typical for artistic gymnastic, as well as some choreographic elements and moves specific to rhythm gymnastics. All elements that can be included in a program are divided into several groups:

• Jumps and hops (they can be simple, or involve the change of foot, or be modified by a turn, or be modified by a particular body position);
• Turns and spins (they are classified in accordance with the amount of the rotations and the position of the free leg, which can be either parallel to the floor or be in the split);
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• Elements that require hand-holds (rolls, aerials);
• Acrobatic moves modified by forward somersaults;
• Acrobatic moves modified by backward somersaults.

Categories

All the elements are divided into several groups in accordance with their difficulty. The groups are: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. The easiest elements are included in the first group, which is marked by the letter ‘A’. These moves are the basic jumps, forward flips and backward somersaults. The last group (‘G’) comprises the most difficult elements that are done by very few athletes in the world. These moves are the triple backward somersault and the double backward somersault modified by three full twists.

Competitions

The competitions comprise four stages.

• Preliminary stage makes it possible to evaluate the skills of each athlete and choose the best sportsmen, who will represent the country or the sports club in terms of team tournaments and further individual championships.
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• Team tournament is the second stage, within which all chosen sportsmen compete in various disciplines.
• All-round final is a tournament, in which 36 sportsmen who have who have won the team tournament demonstrate their abilities to win individual awards.
• Finals in particular disciplines involve competitions between eight athletes who have become the best in corresponding disciplines in terms of the first stage.
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Thus, gymnastics competitions in floor exercise draw on the principle that says: ‘Only the best of the best are allowed to take part in the next stage of the tournament’.

Competitors

To officially become a participant, it is necessary to send an application beforehand. After some time, the governing body of the particular tournament checks the applications. According to the rules, all sportsmen are divided into several groups:

• Adults (men must be 18 or older, women must be 16 or older);
• Juniors (male athletes must be 14 to 17 years old, female athletes – 13 to 15 years old);
• Young men (11-13 years old) and young ladies (9-12 years old);
• Boys (7-10 years old) and girls (6-8 years old).

Requirements for costumes

There are always some requirements for costumes in any gymnastics competitions. As for the floor exercise, male athletes must compete in special shorts and a shirt. Female athletes must be wearing a gymnastics leotard. They are allowed to wear tights of the same color as the leotard. They might opt for gymnastics shoes. When it comes to team tournaments, all participants must be wearing the same clothing.

Scoring system

As it was mentioned previously, all elements that can be incorporated into a program have their own value. If a sportsman makes a mistake, there will be a deduction. All mistakes are divided into three groups.

• Minor errors are not so important and do not affect the element too much (the deduction is 0.1 points);
• Median errors mean that a sportsman was far away from a clear performance (the deduction is 0.3 points);
• Gross errors may lead to a complete failure to perform a particular element (the deduction will be 0.5 to 1.0 points).
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What can be considered a mistake? Any deformation of an element that prevents it from being performed clearly or leads to performing a completely different move that is not supposed to be included in the program.

Evolution

In 1950s, all combinations comprised acrobatics and gymnastics moves. The elements were not too hard: the most difficult move was a backward somersault. Ten years later, the combinations consisted of the typical elements. The main difference from the 1950s is that in 1960s, more elements modified the programs. Men’s and women’s programs were approximately equal from the point of view of their difficulty. However, 1970s were an era of changes. This is when athletes started doing double backward flips and forward splits followed by rolls. These changes were made in 1980s, as well. In 1992, the rules were changed and additional points were added for the elements belonging to the groups starting from ‘G’. In 1996, new rules were set to prevent athletes from including only forward or only backward acrobatics in their programs.

The rules were changed several times after that, but the floor exercise remained a fascinating discipline that is popular all over the world.